UVM dedicates area to first black graduate

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - Students and visitors now have a new way to remember the University of Vermont’s first black graduate.

MyChamplainValley.com reports the university has dedicated an area for gathering and contemplation as The Andrew Harris Commons.

Harris attended the university in the 1830s, but UVM officials say he was practically invisible.

Harris wasn’t allowed to attend chapel and he wasn’t allowed to attend his own graduation.

He later spoke at the annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in May 1839 and demanded full equality for African-Americans.

Harris died of a sudden fever in December 1841 at age 27.

There is now a plaque and an academic chair dedicated to him inside UVM’s main administration building, and a scholarship in his name.